Monday’s big movers: Mr. Dimon goes to Washington

Molycorp surges 20%; Apple Maps needs to come with a warning

GregMorcroft

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Shares of Nexen Inc., Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., Groupon Inc. made big moves during U.S. trading Monday, while Google Inc. and Apple Inc. were among top trending tickers.

Top tickers trending

$JPM: How does Treasury Secretary Dimon sound? J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
JPM, -0.62%
shares shed 0.6% amid tweets that Chief Executive Jamie Dimon is headed to the U.S. Treasury. His name has been popping up more often as a potential successor to Tim Geithner after Warren Buffett said in an interview in November that Dimon would be the best person to lead the Treasury during a crisis. Many on Twitter were skeptical that Dimon would leave Wall Street for D.C.

Reuters

Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan

@deltaStrikejj: Going to Treasury? Jamie Dimon can’t even manage his own company’s risk because he doesn’t understand what a standard deviation is. $jpm

@uclarolo: Rumor? Jamie Dimon as Treasury Secretary. The OWS people must be thrilled. I just don’t think he would leave $JPM for the Treasury.

$AAPL: Apple
AAPL, -1.54%
made waves on Twitter after Jefferies & Co. analysts cut their price target for the shares from $900 to $800. They also suggested that Apple is likely to launch iPhone 5S in June or July.

“Based on our checks, likely updates include a new super HD camera/screen, a better battery and NFC [near-field communication capability]. Possible updates include an IGZO screen for Retina+, 128GB storage and coming in six to eight colors,” according to Peter Misek and his team at Jefferies.

Apple Maps glitches would make for an interesting read if not for their potentially fatal consequences. But travelers down under were not amused.

Apple Maps can apparently kill you, according to Australian police. After several people relying on Apple Maps were stranded out in the wilderness in the outback and had to be rescued, police are urging travelers to use a different map.

“Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the park and temperatures can reach as high as 46 degrees (about 114 degrees Fahrenheit), making this a potentially life threatening issue.

“Some of the motorists located by police have been stranded for up to 24 hours without food or water and have walked long distances through dangerous terrain to get phone reception,” said Victoria Police in a statement.

Apple replaced Google Maps with its own mapping app in its latest mobile operating system release, but problems with the maps app forced Chief Executive Tim Cook to issue a public apology and led to an executive losing his job. See: Using Apple Maps is bad for your health

@RAEckart: Noticed all other stocks simply stopped to watch $AAPL. $$

$JCP: J.C. Penney Co.
JCP, +7.41%
shares rose for a third session, outperforming its peers even as analysts were downbeat on the retailer.

Unseasonably warm weather along with uncertainty about the fiscal cliff have led to an increasingly promotional environment in the retail sector, Michael Exstein at Credit Suisse noted. “From our channel checks, markdown activity was especially intense at the low (KSS and JCP) and high (SKS) ends,” he said.

Matthew Boss at J.P. Morgan insists J.C. Penney is not broken. However, it is expected to remain “constrained“ in the near-future and top-line prospects are likely to be lackluster.

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